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Mongezi Feza - Free Jam

Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic

I have fond memories of driving round dear old Stockholm last November with
Ayler Records' Jan Ström as he pointed out various places of local
interest ("that's where I first saw Frank Lowe busking.."), and
can imagine his enthusiasm when he came across the recordings released as
Free Jam.
For an indefatigable champion of Swedish jazz and compulsive record collector
like Ström - his personal archive includes over a thousand unreleased
recordings - being able to bring out two hours of action-packed music featuring
expat South African trumpeter Feza and one of Sweden's finest (and largely
unsung outside the country) free jazz outfits was an opportunity too good
to pass up.
The cherry on the cake is the presence of Turkish percussion whiz Okay Temiz,
who had been rehearsing in Stockholm at the time with Feza and bassist Johnny
Dyani in a short-lived trio called Music For Xaba (if you have any tapes
of them, Jan, we're waiting).

Recorded in November and December 1972 in a workshop rehearsal space, the
discs pit Feza's fiery trumpet and Temiz's percussion against an exemplary
group of Swedish musicians, a quartet featuring Bernt Rosengren (on saxophones,
flute and piano), Tommy Koverhult (tenor, flute, euphonium), Torbjörn
Hultcrantz (bass) and Leif Wennerström (drums). On the strength of
this set, I'd certainly like to get my hands on the Rosengren Quartet's
1973 double LP on EMI Harvest, Notes From Underground (if anyone is visiting
Stockholm in the near future, check out Harald Halt's awesome record shop
Andra at Rörstrandsgatan 25 - though take plenty of cash, as credit
cards aren't accepted - I imagine he'd have a copy but I wouldn't like to
guess the price).

Meanwhile, here are 119 minutes of furious free form jamming, and if you
thought jamming was synonymous with noodling or just tooling about, think
again. Powered forward by the terrific three man rhythm section - Temiz's
credentials are well known, but you might want to know that Wennerström
was the house drummer at the Golden Circle in 1960s and played with everybody,
and Hultcrantz's name will be familiar to Albert Ayler completists as the
bassist on the saxophonist's first recordings in October 1962 - Feza is
in his element (the general modus operandi and much of the thematic material
is after not dissimilar to that used by Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of
Breath), but Rosengren and Koverhult aren't content to play second fiddle
to their visiting guest.
One might regret not being able to hear the group tackle a more structured
composition, but when the music flows as freely as this, it seems churlish
to complain.